Back in 2004/5, The Race Torque was fortunate to be invited to inspect the private Harris Racing Museum in Brisbane – a special collection for lovers of Blue Oval Touring Car Racing.

Collated by motoring and motorsport identities John and Craig Harris, the assorted machinery featured many significant ties to their own racing endeavours.

The Eagle Farm warehouse doubled as the family race car workshop, from which their V8 Supercars Development Series team operated.

Impressively, many of the old Group C cars were at the forefront of the category’s revival around two decades ago, setting the scene for the class’s modern resurgence.

Ultimately, much of the collection has subsequently been broken up at auctions.

Left: Alan Jones’s original Pack Leader Racing EF Falcon, which ultimately went on to win the 1998 Bathurst 1000 in the hands of Jason Bright and Steven Richards. Greg Crick ran the car for a round in 1999 before it wound up with the Harris family, with Craig utilising it during selected rounds that year, including Bathurst, before it became a frontrunner in the maiden Development Series season.

Middle: Either the unique AU Falcon that the team constructed specifically for the Development Series or a show car reproduction. The car was run by Harris throughout 2002, before moving on to Rod Lynch, who ran Gary McDonald in Kanga Loaders colours and then being utilised by several other drivers.

Right: DJR10, Dick Johnson’s final-ever Bathurst 1000 race car in 1999, and featured the Tru-Blu roof for Johnson’s swansong Queensland 500 in 2000. Craig Harris and Stephen Voight used the car at Bathurst that year, before being retained by the family and used by drivers such as Harris, Michael Simpson and Dale Brede.

The entire family. Of note, at the back of the speedway car lineup was Craig Harris’s original Queensland Gemini Series car, while on the right was the team’s V8 Supercar transporter.

Amongst the memorabilia on the wall is a door from Dick Johnson’s trip through the Forest’s Elbow forest in 1983, an item that was eventually sold for $25,000. In the centre of the frame is a Gemini Series door from Craig’s early days in the sport, carrying the number 88.

The Bob Morris/Bill O’Brien XD Falcon from the 1981 Bathurst 1000. After claiming sixth in the top-ten shootout, the car gained an extra driver on race day when Alan Moffat joined the driving roster after his own XD failed early in what was the first co-driver cross-entry swap in the history of the race. Ultimately, the crew were non-finishers after engine issues stopped their charge on the 88th lap. The car was campaigned until the end of the Group C era, finishing up in the familiar blue colours of Everlast. The car sold for $205,000.

An original Fred Gibson build from 1982, the Joe Moore and Bob Muir King George Tavern is as it finished its last race at Bathurst in 1984. At auction, the car sold for $190,000.

Far left: The ex-Colin Bond Masterton Homes Ford Capri MKII, a car that found much success during the 1981 season, winning its class with seven victories and placing third overall in the points. Originally a Peter Hopwood car, Masterton raced the car in 1982 before his XE Falcon came online, and the car has passed through multiple hands since.

Originally built by Jim Richards, the #32 XC Falcon hardtop was run by Dick Johnson throughout the 1978 season, before being campaigned by John French and Warwick Brown at Bathurst that year. The car sold at auction for $430,000.

It was one of three lightweight hardtops originally built for Allan Moffat Racing, but it eventually wound up in Bill O’Brien’s hands. In contemporary times, the car was spectacularly campaigned by Lloyd Bax prior to his passing. The car sold for $400,000 in 2017.

The Ford Capri MkII as utilised by Craig Harris during his formative touring car days in 1983 and ’84.

Who wouldn’t want a plane hanging from the roof of their man cave?

Check out some of the fantastic memorabilia hanging on the walls…